Ferguson raises voices for ‘justice’

Planned demonstrations persisted over the weekend in St. Louis, where thousands are expected to arrive and protest police violence, including the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in nearby Ferguson.

Crowds began gathering in downtown St. Louis on Saturday morning, continuing events that have been called both the “Weekend of Resistance” and “Ferguson October.”

{mosads}There appears to be more gathering on Saturday, the Associated Press reported, as the city gears up for the first game of the National League Championship Series – with the home-team Cardinals hosting the San Francisco Giants.

Washington Post reporter Wesley Lowrey, who is on-the-ground in Ferguson, tweeted Saturday morning: “Consensus that more than 1000 here at downtown STL march. Unclear how many more #FergusonOctober”

Darren Wilson, a white police officer, shot and killed Michael Brown, a black unarmed teenager, on Aug. 9; but the protests took on new meaning following the shooting of another black teenager in the St. Louis area earlier last week.

While a grand jury is still reviewing the Brown case, critics have been calling for prosecutor Bob McCulloch to charge Wilson in Brown’s death and the appointment of a special prosecutor. As such, the four-day protests began outside of St. Louis county prosecutor’s office on Friday.

“This weekend the nation comes to Ferguson to demand justice for Mike Brown and an end to the crisis of discriminatory and violent policing nationwide,” said Rashad Robinson of ColorOfChange.org, an organization helping to support Ferguson October. “We come to raise our voices for a criminal justice system that honors the lives, safety, and dignity of all communities.”

More than 40 organizations are joining in the protests, including AFL-CIO, Veterans For Peace, Progressive Democrats of America, the National Organization for Women, the St. Louis NAACP and National Domestic Workers Alliance.

Protesters faced rain on Friday and at times had tense standoffs with officers in riot gear, but the demonstrations have been non-violent and police clad in riot gear have remained mostly non-confrontational, according to media reports.

Some shouted at officers with taunts such as, “Who paid for that gear? You didn’t buy that shield, officer. We bought that shield. That’s our shield,” according to the Washington Post. 

“Crowd has gotten smaller in front of Ferguson police department,” Lisa Brown, a reporter at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, wrote on Twitter around 11 p.m. on Friday night. “Some say they’re leaving so they can march again tomorrow.”

This post was updated at 1:15 p.m.